TomVH

Taft High prospects WR Dwayne Stanford and DE Adolphus Washington have been the subject of much conversation between Michigan fans. Both targets would help fulfill big needs for Michigan's 2012 class. The duo is yet to take an unofficial visit to Ann Arbor, but have seemingly been trying to schedule a trip for some time. I caught up with their coach to talk about their summer plans and where they're both at in the recruiting cycle.

TOM: I know there has been a few weekends where we thought Dwayne and Adolphus were going to make it up to Michigan. Are they going to get up to Ann Arbor any time soon?

COACH MARTIN: I don't think they'll be taking any more visits because of AAU basketball. I know they go away next week and when they come back we'll be in two a days so it will be tough for them to make it to places. As of now they have nothing else scheduled.

TOM: Do you know where both are at in the process?

COACH MARTIN: Michigan is in their top five, I don't know what their top group is off hand but Michigan is in it for both. Right now neither have a clue when they'll decide. I think once they start taking official visits they'll start to figure it out. They don't want to commit to anybody right now.

TOM: They originally had said that they wanted to be a package deal and then that started to fade a little bit. Do you think their recruitment will end up being more individualized or will they stay together?

COACH MARTIN: I think it's going to be more individualized. If it happens it happens, I don't think they're planning on it right now. I know their top five lists have a couple schools that are not in the others.

TOM: Since you're around them the most what kind of people are they going to be at the next level? What is a program going to get from these two?

COACH MARTIN: They're going to get two hard working guys. With all types of guys that get in trouble you never have to worry about that with these two. From an academic and football standpoint they'll be everywhere they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be. Both will come in and contribute early. Whoever gets them is going to get quality people.

I've had a lot of questions about where Michigan's 2012 recruiting class will be ranked come February. This is almost impossible to predict since there are no constants in the recruiting world. Since that won't satisfy anyone though I figured I would give you a projection based off of past years, and what Michigan's class could potentially look like around signing day.

This is all conjecture based off the assumption that nothing will change with Michigan's current commitments. It's more or less for fun. Don't take it too seriously.

Michigan currently has 19 commitments not counting greyshirt Jeremy Clark. There are 10 four star prospects committed and 9 three stars. We'll also assume that Michigan is going to take 25-26 prospects, just for argument sake meaning there are 6-7 spots left. In order to project where the class will be ranked let's first look at how the class could close out [For simplicity all star rankings are per Rivals].

Offensive Line Prospects

Name

State

Height/Weight

Stars

Jordan Diamond

Illinois

6'6", 289 lbs.

4

Josh Garnett

Washington

6'5", 275 lbs

4

Adam Bisnowaty

Pennsylvania

6'6", 275 lbs

4

Zach Banner

Washington

6'9", 310 lbs

4

Average Stars

4

Michigan is only taking one more prospect from this group. I kept these names on because these are the most likely prospects to choose Michigan. We'll project Michigan will land one more 4 star prospect for the class from the offensive line.

Defensive Tackle Prospects

Name

State

Height/Weight

Stars

Aziz Shittu

California

6'3", 275 lbs

5

Ondre Pipkins

Missouri

6'3", 325 lbs

4

Danny O'Brien

Michigan

6'2", 293 lbs

4

Average Stars

4.3

The coaches have told some of these prospects that they will only be taking one more interior lineman, but I still think there's a good chance they take two. We'll just assume for this exercise that they'll take two. The most likely from that group are Pipkins and O'Brien, so let's add two 4 star prospects to the list from the defensive tackle group.

Defensive End Prospects

Name

State

Height/Weight

Stars

Adolphus Washington

Ohio

6'4", 230 lbs.

4

Chris Wormley

Ohio

6'4", 255 lbs.

3

Average Stars

3.5

You're probably only looking at one prospect from this group if you want two defensive tackles. Until Adolphus Washington actually visits I'm not sure where he actually has Michigan ranked. We'll go with Wormley and say that Michigan adds one 3 star prospect to the commit list. [ed: It's worth noting that 247 and Scout both have Wormley in their top 100s.]

Wide Receiver Prospects

Name

State

Height/Weight

Stars

Aaron Burbridge

Michigan

6'1", 175 lbs.

4

Dwayne Stanford

Ohio

6'5", 185 lbs.

4

Jordan Payton

California

6'2", 199 lbs.

4

Amara Darboh

Iowa

6'2", 190 lbs.

4

Jehu Chesson

Missouri

6'3", 182 lbs.

3

Average Stars

3.8

There's likely three spots left in our scenario, so let's say the coaches will take two receivers from this group. There's a possibility that we could see other receivers earn offers if Michigan doesn't land anyone from this list. This group is a little tougher because Burbridge has grade issues. For our purposes though let's include Aaron Burbridge/ unnamed four star, and one other prospect.

Jehu Chesson, Jordan Payton, and Dwayne Stanford have shown the most interest from the rest of the group. I'll go on the conservative side here though and say Michigan lands a 3 star receiver. So we have one 4 star and one 3 star. It's too early to tell if that's likely, but like I said it's on the conservative side. The scenarios within this group are tough to predict.

Fullback/Running Back Prospects

Name

State

Height/Weight

Stars

Bri'onte Dunn

Ohio

6'2", 215 lbs.

4

EJ Fatu

Texas

5'10", 235 lbs.

3

Juwan Lewis

Michigan

5'11", 208 lbs.

3

Sione Houma

Utah

6'0", 211 lbs.

2

Average Stars

3

Given that we took two wide receivers we only have room for one from the running back position group. That was partially why I added a 4 star and a 3 star to the receivers, because the 3 star receiver could potentially be interchangeable with a fullback.

This is also a hard group to predict because of the uncertainty with Bri'onte Dunn. As I reported earlier in the week I don't think Dunn's recruitment is over. With Michigan landing Kyle Kalis that helps their chances. However, I'm going to go conservative again, and this time just take the average stars rating of 3. There's too many factors that could play into this and it's too hard to predict. I left Greg Garmon off this list because he still doesn't have Michigan as his leader even after a visit to Ann Arbor. He did tell me that he loves Michigan, but at this point I left him off. So Michigan adds a 3 star from this group.

Recap

The projected class above leaves Michigan with a total of 26 prospects. The new prospects that we've added to the list here are as follows:

One 4 Star Offensive Lineman

Two 4 Star Defensive Tackles

One 3 Star Defensive End

One 4 Star and One 3 Star Wide Receiver

One 3 Star Running Back/Fullback

If you add these numbers to the current class, it looks something like this:

4 Stars

14

3 Stars

12

Just to reiterate, these projections are assuming there is no change in the current state of the recruiting world, there are no re-ranks, players don't move up or down, etc. We know that's not the case, so there is certainly a chance that a few Michigan commits could move up or down. Both Kyle Kalis and Erik Magnuson for example have been mentioned as potentially moving up to 5 stars. That would change things, but I can't predict if that happens.

In order to project a final ranking we'll have to look back at where previous teams were ranked after signing day that have similar classes to Michigan. For a somewhat realistic comparison I'll give a little leeway in the stars. I'll include classes that finished with one or two 5 stars and similar 4 stars, just to show a broad spectrum.

Here's what other teams have finished with star wise and where they ranked out according to Rivals:

Past Team Rankings

Year

Team

Total Commits

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

Rank

2011

Texas

22

1

15

6

3

2011

Georgia

26

2

12

11

5

2011

Auburn

24

1

13

10

7

2011

Ohio State

23

1

9

12

11

2011

Tennessee

27

0

12

14

13

2010

Alabama

26

1

15

9

5

2010

UCLA

23

1

12

10

8

2010

Tennessee

25

1

12

9

9

2010

Oregon

23

1

10

9

13

2009

Ohio State

25

2

15

8

3

2009

Georgia

19

1

14

4

6

2009

Michigan

22

1

13

6

8

2009

Oklahoma

23

0

11

11

13

2009

UCLA

27

0

11

14

14

It's important to note that these rankings aren't just factored in by star rankings. Rivals uses a number of different factors that includes class size and their individual scores as well. Again for simplicity will just compare classes off of somewhat similar size to Michigan's 2012 class and their star rankings.

As you can see from the chart the highest ranked classes that Michigan could potentially compare to are the 2011 Texas and 2009 Ohio state classes that were both ranked third. Texas had one 5 star and Ohio State had two, so in order for Michigan to get up to that type of ranking they would most likely need to either add a five star or have a few of their prospects reranked into that status. [Ed: if Kalis remains 18th he he will almost certainly grab a fifth star. Rivals averages around 35 per year and have only handed out half of those so far. Magnuson will also be on the cusp if he maintains his current status.] Another good comparison would be Tennessee's 2010 class which ranked number 9 overall. They have a similar number of total committed prospects and somewhat comparable number of stars.

Tennessee had an outstanding class in 2011 as well, ranked 13th overall. If nothing were to change then that's a pretty good comparison for the range that Michigan could be in. Since the Vols had around the same number of prospects committed with around the same number of 3 and 4 stars I'd be comfortable putting Michigan in that range. Since Michigan has two more 4 star prospects committed [in our hypothetical scenario] I would also feel safe moving them up to around the 10-11 range. That's based off of the assumption that Michigan does not add any five stars.

As of right now I would say that the class could finish out in the 7-13 range. If they get a little lucky with Dunn and some guys moving up when the class re-ranks (Ondre Pipkins seems due for a major surge) they'll crack the top five.

If you read the Weekly update you know that Ohio RB Bri'onte Dunn might visit for the BBQ on the 31st. I spoke with someone I trust today about him and I believe that Bri'onte's situation is starting to change.
By that I mean he has seen what decision Kyle Kalis made and it's making him think about what he's going to do. I had said previously that the two year bowl ban would be the key, but it's starting to look like that might not even be the main factor. Playing early and playing in bowl games is what he wants. I'm not saying he's decommitting, but I'm saying he's starting to think about everything a little differently than before.
Again I'm on my phone so excuse the formatting.

The Kyle Kalis commitment was huge for Michigan, and like I said he's already recruiting other kids to join him. However, you now have 5 offensive linemen committed and 4 of which could potentially play tackle.
I'm not saying they will end up at tackle, but there's opportunity for them to. Whenever you get in that situation there will always come some sort of hesitation from someone else. The Michigan coaches do want one more elite lineman in this class for now.
Jordan Diamond is one of those prospects, but his mother told me she does have some concerns with the commits that Michigan now has. It's not something to freak out about, but she is at least aware of the situation and has expressed some concern as to how it would affect Jordan if he were to pick Michigan. Something to keep an eye on.
Jordan still says he wants to wait until after the season, so we'll see what he decides to do in the near future. I don't know if this will cause him to move things up yet, or if it's enough of a concern to move on. That part isn't clear yet, so don't go freaking out.

The Kyle Kalis commitment was a huge deal for Michigan. With 19 commitments on board there's no reason to think they won't be sitting at 20-22 by the time the season starts. They're on a roll and that momentum should continue soon. Here's a look at what happened this week and what's happening in the future. As always you can follow me on Twitter @TomVH and send me any tips or questions at [email protected].

Mario Ojemudia

6'3", 220 lbs.

Defensive End/Linebacker

Farmington Hills, Michigan

Mario was one of the five commitments in Oregon for the Nike event The Opening. He, along with the other attendees, got to work with some top NFL talent while there.

I didn't run the forty as good as I thought I could. We got to work with Ndamukong Suh though. He had a lot of stuff to tell us about technique. We were doing ball get offs and one on ones. I think I did pretty good.

He also got a chance to meet some of the other Michigan commitments and do a little recruiting.

I already knew Terry and James [Ross] but I met with Erik Magnuson and Anthony Standifer. We did some recruiting. We were recruiting Sheldon Day, Danny O'Brien, and anyone that we thought Michigan wanted. I didn't talk to Zach Banner, but I heard he was saying Michigan was in his top group.

As for what he was saying to try to recruit prospects to Michigan.

We were joking around mostly, but we were saying come to Michigan. Look what we're building, look where we're taking the program and all these commits we have.

This event seemed to be a positive all around for everyone involved. All the prospects have been raving about the experience.

Erik Magnuson

6'6", 280 lbs.

Offensive Lineman

Carlsbad, California

Magnuson was also in Oregon, but was working on the opposite side of the ball as Mario. He also got a chance to work with some NFL talent.

We got to work with Russell Okung, the offensive lineman for the Seattle Seahawks. It was cool because he's in the league but he's young enough to joke around with us. He's out there helping me and he wasn't acting too big. He was out there telling me what to do better. He talked to me about my hand placement with my punch on pass rushing. He said he liked my footwork and aggression too.

Erik was also in on the recruiting pitch with the other commitments.

It was cool to hang out with the other commitments, it was good to put a face to the name. We were all doing some recruiting. Josh Garnett is really liking Michigan a lot, and Zach Banner this is my second week in a row being with him. I'm still trying to get Isaac Seumalo.

I asked Erik the same question as Mario, what is he telling recruits as to why they should choose Michigan.

I just ask them if they want to win a National Championship. Someone said that Michigan has the number one or number two recruiting class. Look at what Coach Hoke did at San Diego State. Give me one good reason why he won't do that at Michigan. I know Coach Hoke more than anyone else and there's no reason to think he won't win at Michigan.

The other recruits were listening to the pitch, and as you already know Josh Garnett and Zach Banner are both planning official visits to Michigan.

Danny O'Brien

6'2", 295 lbs.

Defensive Tackle

Flint, Michigan

The theme with The Opening continues as O'Brien was also at the event. As Mario mentioned the commitments were trying to convince Danny to jump on board. He spoke very highly of the event.

It was sick, they over did it with everything. They had everything for us, three barbers on hand to cut our hair, and we got to play NCAA Football 2012 which was sweet. Ndamukong Suh worked with the defensive line the whole time. During one on ones he'd pull you aside and critique you. He said that my pad level on pass rush needs to get lower and he was showing me different stances and moves.

He was obviously around the Michigan commitments and took in what they were saying.

I hung out with Terry [Richardson] and James [Ross] a lot. We hung out with them and Ron Thompson and Anthony Standifer too. They were just saying comments here and there, and talking about how many spots are left.

As for what's next for Danny, he plans on taking some more visits in the near future.

I'm going to come out with a top six here pretty soon, Michigan is definitely in there. The plan is still to take some official visits then decide. I'm going down south from the 17th of July to the 23rd. I'm going to Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee. If Godin is going to the BBQ [at Michigan on the 31st], then I'll be there too [Tom ED: Godin is going as you'll see below].

Danny is well aware of the defensive tackle situation and knows that Michigan wants Ondre Pipkins as well. We'll see how that situation plays out, but I still think there's a decent chance the coaches would take two defensive tackles if those two were Pipkins and O'Brien.

BBQ at the Big House

The BBQ at the Big House is still happening this year. It's taking place on July 31st. Still a lot of time until it happens but I've confirmed some names that will be there so far, and a few that are undecided.

YES:

Commit OL Caleb Stacey

Commit LB Joe Bolden

Commit LB Kaleb Ringer

Commit LB Royce Jenkins-Stone

Commit DB Terry Richardson

Commit LB James Ross

Commit DE Matt Godin

Commit DB Allen Gant

Commit TE Devin Funchess

Commit DE Tom Strobel

Commit OL Ben Braden

DT Danny O'Brien

2013 RB Wyatt Shallman

WR Jehu Chesson: He told me he believes he will be there.

2013 OL Steven Elmer: His father told me they will be at the BBQ. As I reported on Twitter earlier, he and his father were on campus on Monday the 10th. It wasn't a football related visit, just more to walk around campus and see things.

NOT SURE:

OL Jordan Diamond: They're not sure if they are yet, but there's a good chance they will be. His mom told me, "Any excuse to visit. We'd like to go."

RB Bri'onte Dunn: He was invited, but his father told me he doesn't know if they'll be going yet. It might help if new commitment Kyle Kalis is on hand as well. We'll see if he makes it up.

Extra:

Speaking of Bri'onte Dunn. I also tweeted this, but for you non-tweeters, if Ohio State's self imposed sanctions stick with the NCAA then I'm not expecting him to leave Ohio State. However, if they get a two year bowl ban then I think that's too much for him and there's a good chance he would leave. Just something to keep an eye on. The OSU compliance meeting is in August, so we won't know what the official word is until then.

The offensive line situation now that Kyle Kalis is committed has stayed the same so far. The plan for now is to take one more lineman, as long as it is one of the elite prospects on their board. That's the plan for now, it could always change but it looks like that's what will stick.

The commitment of safety Jarrod Wilson was a win for the Michigan coaching staff. Greyshirt commitment Jeremy Clark told me that he is still 100% with Michigan despite the Wilson commitment. This sounds right since the coaches laid out the scenario to him pretty clear.

MaxPreps has moved Michigan ahead of Texas with the number one recruiting class in the country with the addition of Kalis and Wilson.

I had posted this on Wednesday or Thursday, I can't remember, but then deleted it because I didn't think he wanted it out there. Since it's been out now for awhile and people are asking I'll just post that Kyle Kalis is visiting with his family this weekend.

Like I've said before I think he wants a decent amount of privacy with all this, so I was surprised that this was out there. I spoke with him last night and he hadn't settled on a day to visit yet. I'll talk to him tomorrow to find out if he's coming in tomorrow or Sunday. He wants his mom to see everything that he saw on his last visit. This is a big deal for Michigan.